


Kamen Rider Dullahan

by Shane_Leath



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Power Rangers
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Crossover, Gen, Irish, School, Theater - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22349257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shane_Leath/pseuds/Shane_Leath
Summary: Colin Walsh is the Sound Crew Head for the Henshin Academy's Theater Department, he's also Kamen Rider Dullahan. In a school year rife with threats natural, supernatural, human and inhuman he must fight to not only save the Academy and the lives of his fellow Riders but also the lives of... Power Rangers? Your Last Judgment has arrived at the hands, of KAMEN RIDER DULLAHAN!
Kudos: 1





	1. Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on my DeviantArt: ShadowRulz324, my FanFiction Net: Shane Leath, and Wattpad: Shane_Leath. On DA you can find a group shot of most of the main characters.

Cramped, hot, dusty, tangled up and covered in cords. A situation not at all unfamiliar to Colin Walsh, the young man in charge of the Sound Tech crew of the Henshin Academy’s Theater Department. He was currently working underneath the ramshackle excuse for a stage the stagecraft crew whipped up overnight, and Colin barely trusted it to hold a person’s weight without the plywood sheets snapping. But, if they could build a two-story tower on casters that held together for 3 weeks of daily rehearsals and 8 shows he could trust it long enough to hook up the podium mics.

He stuck a hand out from under the stage. “XLR please.” He listened as Hunter, Sound crew member and resident layabout, shuffled around in a tub.

He yawned. “Why did you choose me to help you with this?” Colin took the cable and pulled it under with him.

“Because you’re the only one who ever listens to what I say.” He hooked the cable up and wriggled his way to the other podium. “Did they bring the rest of the speakers?”

“There’s supposed to be other speakers?”

Colin sighed, “Yes.” He stuck his hand up through a hole and fumbled around looking for the mic cord till wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it through. “XLR.” Hunter was already on it and dropped the cord through the hole on Colin’s face. “Thank you.” He attached the cord and slid out from under the stage. “Alright let’s test this out…” He walked over to one tower of amps and flipped them on. He gestured to Hunter to go to the mic and start speaking. Hunter stepped up to the Henshin Academy Podium and tapped the mic causing feedback to screech from the speakers. Colin covered his ears and twisted some nobs and the feedback slowly went away.

“Check check 1 2 1 2 check check, are we good?” Hunter’s voice boomed. Colin nodded and crossed to the stage where his bag was, he sat on the edge and pulled out his laptop.

“And now we wait for the other speakers to get here.”

“Why weren’t they here with the others?”

“Because Sweezy doesn’t give a shit about sound till it goes haywire because the stuff is broken, outdated or falling apart. Then he yells at me about it and to fix it.” Colin loved doing sound, for the most part, and he loved working with the Theater but he absolutely hated the Department Head, Mark Sweezy. He paid more attention to the actors and the Tech Director than the crew heads and very often refused to replace broken things or buy something new unless it was absolutely required. “And if they don’t get here in time we’ll just have to daisy chain the hell out of it like we did for Miracle last year.”

“God that production was fun wasn’t it?”

Colin nodded. “Oh yes. I loved having over half the mics blow out during mic check and rewriting all the switches after spending all day testing out which cables worked, connecting them and taping them down so the idiots don’t fall backstage.”

“Sometimes I wonder why you keep doing this, you sound like you hate it half the time.” Hunter asked, taking a seat next to him and sipping on his coffee.

“It’s the people I like and I’m the only one who actually cares.”

“I care.” Colin looked at him over his glasses.

“That’s what you say”

“That’s what I mean.” Colin returned to his laptop.

“Ok.” Hunter smiled and shook his head.

“So when are people supposed to start arriving?”

“The Headmistress said the hall opens at 6 and they have to be here by 7.” Colin checked the clock. “So we’ve got about 40 minutes before doors open.”

“40 minutes!? Why’d we show up so early? The setup only took, what? 20 minutes? 25 tops?” Colin closed his laptop and put it back in the bag, he slung it over his shoulder and started walking towards the door.

“Because sound is a fickle bitch and who knows if we would’ve had to get something from the Theater. Which, since it looks like no one’s bringing any we’ll just have to get them ourselves.” Hunter followed him as they strolled down the empty halls.  
“Do we have permission to go grab their speakers?”  
“I’d assume so since those cables are theirs too.” Colin held open the door to the backstage area and followed Hunter inside, as he walked in he bumped into Hunter who was standing rock solid. “What are you d-”  
“Shhh shh shhh…” Hunter motioned to be quiet and pointed off towards where the stage was and crouched low. Colin crouched beside him and listened, he heard voices, one was loud and barking orders while the other, a more terse and low voice, interjected every so often.

“I don’t care how heavy those things are! Get them in place before the students arrive!”

“Would you be quiet Buama, you’ll attract unwanted attention. And they’re holding the introductory speech in the mess hall can’t fit all those brats in here.”

“It’s not my fault the Fir Bolgs are weaklings! They need motivation!” Colin walked around Hunter and crept up to the curtains, he peeked around the curtain and saw two figures standing onstage with a group of short, hairy dark grey-skinned men dressed in rags carrying large bags over their shoulders with one hand and small black boxes in the other hand. They were receiving the boxes from a large black monster and placing them around the theatre. It looked like a deformed and decaying hunchbacked human with a large protruding jaw, big bright soulless eyes, and was covered in explosive materials and devices.

The other man onstage was dressed head to toe in a heavy cloak with a hood to cover his face and clung to the shadows.

“Monsters? What are they doing here?” Hunter asked sneaking up behind Colin.

“Don’t know, but they’re not staying here.” Colin stayed crouched and started crossing to the other side of the stage towards the flies with Hunter behind him.

“And if they’re not going to be here, then why are we putting the bombs here instead of there?” Buama asked shoving a handful of bombs into a Fir Bolgs’ hands.

“Because the new Ranger Team Formations will be held in here, and all will be gathered. Except those stupid Riders, but we’ll deal with them later.” Colin reached the fly system, he undid a fastener on the fly for the Main Curtain and went to remove a weight but Hunter stopped him.

“What are you doing? The Main will come crashing down.”

“I know, come crashing down on those two.” Colin pointed at the monsters. “And when that happens we can take them down.”

“But we don’t have our Belts! We should go get help!”

“No time, now grab the fly lock and when I say go, unlock it.” Colin grabbed a weight and waited for the Monster to start yelling again.

“HEY! You three! Yeah, you! Stop slacking off, I’ve got more bombs for you!” Colin lifted a weight off and nodded, Hunter unlocked the fly and the weights shot upwards bringing the Main down on the Monsters.

“HEY WHAT’S GOING ON!” Buama Slaugh shouted trying to fight his way out of the curtain smothering him, some of the Fir Bolgs tried helping him but when they saw Colin and Hunter they charged towards them.

“I think our covers blown dude.” Hunter snapped to a fighting stance while Colin chucked the weight at a Fir Bolg.

“Let’s take care of these guys before the other two get free.” Colin dodged a wild punch and punched upwards into the Fir Bolg’s stomach. Hunter grabbed the Fir Bolg and used its momentum to toss it into a few of its buddies. A Fir Bolg took the bag it had and swung it at Hunter, clocking him in the chest and throwing him to the ground. Two Fir Bolgs tried to jump on him but Hunter kicked them in the knees forcing them off balance and onto the ground with him. Colin ran across the stage chased by the Fir Bolgs, he grabbed a light and swung it around him hitting a Fir Bolg’s bag as it sailed towards his head. The impact knocked both of them back but Colin recovered quickly and took the now broken light and clubbed the other Fir Bolgs over the head.

“This would be much easier with our Rider powers!” He heard Hunter shout fending off some mooks with a sheet music stand. They continued fighting till they found themselves back to back center stage with the monsters closing in.

“I don’t think we’ll be finishing this year…” Hunter remarked.

“ALRIGHT WHO DROPPED THE CURTAIN ON ME!?” Buama finally crawled his way out from under the Main and stomped over to the circle of Fir Bolgs, he forced his way between them and towered over Hunter and Colin. “So it was you two humans huh? Thought I’d have to wait to start crushing you but you’ll make great examples!” Buama raised his hands up high in a hammer fist, fingers sparking like firecrackers. Hunter looked away, not too keen on watching his doom come towards him, while Coling reached inside his jacket. As Buama’s hammerfist thundered down Colin yanked something out of his jacket and shot his hand up, they collided and the resulting explosion sent everyone backward. “What the hell was that?!” Buama shouted.

“This.” Colin held up a black device within the center and a speaker on one side. Hunter held his head up to look.

“Wait, that’s-”

“DULLAHAN DRIVER!” A booming, deathly voice sounded from the speakers.

“When did you get that?! Henshin devices aren’t handed out till 3rd Period!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Colin removed a skull-shaped mic pack from the right side of the Driver as it extended a belt around his waist, he pulled an ear mic from it and attached it. A horse’s whinny and pounding hooves echoed through the theater followed by a cackling crazed laugh. “Sound Check!” He cried into the mic and plugged the pack into the driver as a black horse with flaming eyes and nostrils ridden by a headless black-cloaked figure galloped up behind him, a bucket of blood in one hand and ahead in the other. “HENSHIN!” The Horseman dumped the bucket on Colin’s head while he twisted the Gain dial, the blood solidified into a suit of dark grey armor streaked with dark red. The Rider plopped his head on Colin’s while a speaker fell from the sky to encase it in the shape of a horse’s head. Black mist rolled from his cloak and the room grew colder.

“Sound off! Kamen Rider Dullahan!” Dullahan shouted. The previously haughty Buama started backing away.

“No way, there’s no way that-”

“Time for your Last Judgement sluagh.” Dullahan charged forward and clashed with the explosive sluagh. He struck him across the chest and slammed him across the face with a spinning back fist which sent Buama stumbling back.

“You’re a tough little shit, but let’s see if you’re tougher than TNT!” Buama yanked a bomb pack off his arm and as Dullahan slid in for a kick, he slapped it on his shin before using his momentum to sling him off the stage into the house. Dullahan scrambled to remove the bomb but failed and the explosion forced him through the bolted seating. “HAHAHAHAHA! So much for a Death Rider!” Buama chortled. “Now you.” He turned his attention to Hunter who was making a break for the exit. “Oh no ya don’t.” The Sluagh ran after him lobbing a grenade. There was an evil cackle and Dullahan leapt out of the smoke cloud with a whip in hand.

“Surprise.” He lashed the whip striking the grenade and diverting it away from Hunter who dived to the ground just in time to avoid the explosion. Landing on the stage he stalked forward towards Buama lashing the whip at every strike he attempted. “I’ve had enough of this, Judgement Time has come Buama Sluagh.” Dullahan removed the mic pack from his Driver and held it out in front of him, it's jaw was contorted into a crazed, idiotic grin spreading from ear to ear. The skull's eye sockets lit up with a dark blue flame as Buama fell to his knees pleading.

“NO! Please! No, I can’t go back to the Otherworld!” The fires burned brighter and began pulling its soul from the body. The jaw opened and drew the poor sluagh's soul inside it kicking and screaming before slamming shut. Dullahan replaced the mic pack and turned away as the sluagh’s body exploded in a shower of black smoke.  
Dullahan reached to his driver and turned the Gain down and removed the mic pack and in a flash of light he reverted back to Colin. He stood tall and removed the Driver from his waist, Hunter ran up to him as he stared where Buama Sluagh died.

“DUDE! What was that?! That was badass! I’ve never seen you like that before! With the horse and the blood and the head and the whip and the flaming eyes an-”

“Yeah, real cool, I get it.” Colin said. “Come on, let’s go find the Headmaster. Tell her about this.” He started walking towards the exit.

“But, what about the bombs?” Hunter asked following after, looking over his shoulder for them.

“They’ll be duds now since I stole Buama Sluagh’s soul. A Sluagh’s constructs are no good without the Sluagh to activate them.” Colin opened the house door and climbed the steps to the theater exit.

“Wait, you stole that thing’s soul?” Hunter grabbed his shoulder and held him back. Colin rolled his eyes.

“Well not exactly but-”

“What have we here…” A voice chimed in, it was low and cold. From around the corner stepped a man in a dark green suit, his long black hair was pulled back tight in a braided ponytail, his dark brown eyes scanned the pair with a judgmental air as he scowled. “A couple of students lurking where they do not belong.” Colin stepped forward.

“Sorry Sir, I’m Collin Walsh the Sound Crew Head for The Henshin Aca-” The man threw his hands up and chortled.

“Oh! The Henshin Academy, of course! I should’ve known since I don’t recognize you. I’m the Deputy Headmaster of the Ranger Academy, Breas.” He stepped forward and placed a hand Colin and Hunter’s shoulders, spun them around and started walking them down the hall. “Just because my Boss and your Headmistress decided to convene the Acadmeys for this year doesn’t give you free rein of the place.”

“Sir, we were just going to retrieve some cables for the stage in the cafeteria.” Colin said removing Breas’ hand from his shoulder, Hunter wriggled out from his grasp as well.

“Yeah man, we weren’t up to anythin’.” Breas crossed his arms still advancing, forcing the two down the halls.

“Mhm, then what was with the explosions?” Colin’s head jerked back and Hunter stammered.

“Uh, well, there was-”

“When we arrived looking for the cables we heard voices and upon investigation, we found a pair of monsters planning to bomb the place.” Breas scoffed.

“Monsters? Bombs? Pfft, no monsters can get inside the Academy grounds. The security systems would’ve stopped them long before they would pose any threat to the school or students.” Breas grabbed them both again and turned them down the hall to the cafeteria. Hunter ripped out of his grasp again and spun to face him, leaning against a door to the cafeteria.

“We’re serious man, there was this big bomb monster! And the dudes made of clay carrying bags of… bags of stuff, I don’t know what but it hurt like hell when they hit me with ‘em. What were they called, Fur Bods? Fig Buds?” Hunter looked to Colin for support, Colin sighed and was about to respond when Breas jumped in.

“I don’t care what the monsters in this little fantasy you’ve come up with are called, I don’t know what you were doing in that Theater but I am going to find out. Now get over there with the rest of your Rider friends.” He spat and jabbed a finger down towards a cluster of Rider students and teachers.

“Dude, we’re-” Colin grabbed Hunter by the arm and started pulling him along to the clustered Riders. “Colin what are-, let me go.”

“Come on Hunter, he’s not gonna listen.” They joined the rest of the Riders as the Teachers opened the doors and let the group enter. They heard Headmistress Slaine’s voice over the loudspeakers as they flowed in. “-an opportunity for us to learn from each other.” Colin and Hunter clung to the back of the crowd as the heard boos and jeers come from the disgruntled Rangers.

“Damn Rangers, thinkin’ they’re so much better than us. What’ve they got? Teamwork? Pfft, teamwork, having to rely on others to help defeat an enemy isn’t a strength. It’s a weakness.” Hunter spat, knocking away a flying cup as it sailed towards his head. Colin looked to the other man on stage, he had a stern, unflinching, unreadable face and his eyes were hidden behind dark aviators, his dress consisted of black slacks, a green dress shirt, orange tie, long dark green dress coat with white lining.

“That must be the Ranger Academy Headmaster.” Hunter muttered, Colin nodded and listened to him as he continued the speech, an air of disdain in his voice for his students’ reactions. And watching as some Teachers pulled the ones who were throwing things out of the cafeteria. “Up till now Rangers and Riders have simply just, coexisted trying to stay out of the other’s way and often fighting when we do. Which is why we’re attempting to change this, by combining schools we’ll learn to do more than coexist. We’ll learn to fight together, not against, and when that happens no evil will stand in our way.”

As Slaine picked up speech again a few Riders grabbed the thrown objects at their feet and chucked them back at the Rangers. “We will stand alone, against the forces of darkness fighting for others who cannot fight for themselves!” Almost as soon as she finished there was a shout from the front of the room, near the stage.

“WHO THE FUCK THREW THAT?!” The shout came from a large, burly pale man in a black casual button-up and grey vest standing above the crowd, his fists clenched. Colin followed his gaze across the room to a cluster of Riders laughing and pointing at him. The burly man charged across the room, leaping over tables, chairs and students, 2 of his friends chasing soon after. “YOU BASTARDS ARE GONNA REGRET THAT!”

“MURDOCH!” cried a smaller guy in a white shirt, jacket and grey jeans. As Murdoch leapt over a table to fight the Riders, Hunter cheered on the Riders while Colin looked down and rubbed his eyes.

“This is going to be… a year.”

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 1 of Kamen Rider Dullahan! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


	2. Fifth-Rate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day continues as Colin and Hunter attend their first classes and we get to see meet some of the people behind the attack early in the morning.

Colin and Hunter left the cafeteria with the rest of their classmates and headed down the halls, avoiding any conflict with the Rangers. Colin reached into his back pocket for his schedule and locker info, as he looked it over Hunter fumed about the brawl they just watched. “Man, can you believe that? A couple of stupid Rangers beat a group of Riders?” Colin just shrugged and threw a hand up.

“It happened, so sure. What’s your locker number?” Colin filed through and climbed the steps to the third floor. Hunter reached into his pocket and rummaged around for it, then rummaged around in his other pocket, then his back pockets. “You don’t have your schedule do you?”

Hunter smirked, “Nope.” Colin rolled his eyes, of course he didn’t have it. Hunter never had the stuff he needed when he needed it, never had the mic tape for switches, never had the book for english class, never had the calculator for math. Unless he could shove it in his pockets, it was usually back home, in his locker or somewhere tucked away in the theater tech room.

“Well, hopefully you can print it off during my first class.”

“What is it?” They continued climbing the steps up to the 4th then up to the 5th floor.

“Network Security Fundamentals.” Hunter’s shoulders slumped.

“Network Security Fundamentals? Ugh, whyyyyyy…”

“Because if I can make some extra money off some cyber security contracts while out in the galaxy, I can pay for your freeloading.” Colin came to a stop at his locker, 335 as he listened to Hunter’s idle complaining he worked to open it up. Due to the incorporation of entirely new student body all lockers had been modified to have two separate locked halves, one for the Ranger and one for the Rider.

“Freeloading? I’m not a freeloader, I pay for my stuff! I do my fair share of housework.” Colin started removing various amenities from his bag and placing them in the locker.

“True, but you don’t help pay rent.” Hunter leaned against the locker next to him, grabbing a pencil out of the magnetic holder Colin attached to the door and started playing with it.

“Yes I do! When I get paid…” Colin grabbed the flipping pencil out of the air and stuffed it in his pocket as he placed a stack of books inside.

“No ya don’t, you haven’t paid a lick of the rent for two years.” Hunter’s eyes narrowed in confusion and suspicion.

“You sure about that?” Colin leaned on the locker and looked at him.

“Pretty sure.” Hunter pulled out his phone.

“Then wha-” The pair was interrupted as a guy shoved his way between them, pushing Colin to the ground and Hunter into a group of students.

“Out of my way punks.” He grunted, opening up his half of locker 335. Hunter readjusted himself and stepped up next to him.

“Hey bud, there’s a proper way to get a guy to move ya know.” The student glared at him as he reached in.

“That’s assuming you worthy of proper treatment.” Hunter’s eyes flashed with anger. Colin stepped in between Hunter and the guy before he could make a decision they’d both regret.

“Come on Hunter, let’s get to class.” He grabbed Hunter by the arm and started steering him away and down the halls. Hunter shouted back at the student, refusing to go quietly.

“Hey! We’re not done here! I’ll be back you hear me! I’ll teach you some manners!” Hunter ripped his arm out of Colin’s hand and followed. “Dude what the heck? That dude totally disrespected us.” Colin nodded but continued cutting his way through the halls.

“Mmhmm but there’s more important things to fight over than a moment of disrespect. Besides, I’ve already been in one fight today and I don’t need to go dragging you out of another.” Hunter rolled his eyes and growled.

“Stick in the mud…” The pair cut through students till they reached the computer lab, Colin went to sit near the front while Hunter opted for a desk tucked away in the corner behind a support pillar. They logged onto their stations while they waited for the other students to file in and the professor to start class. Time seemed to drag for Hunter as he fiddled around on his computer ignoring everything the teacher was saying while he printed off his schedule. When the printer started buzzing and whirring the Professor stopped going on about… whatever is was he was going on about.

“Who’s printing?” he scanned the classroom, Hunter raised his hand. “Yes? What are you printing off?”

Hunter shrugged and rolled over to the printer in his chair. “Schedule, forgot the one you guys sent me at home.”

“Ok, well since it’s the first day I’ll let it go but please ask before you print something off again. And while I have you, what’s your name? I don’t remember seeing you last semester.” Hunter rolled back to his desk and went back to mucking around on the internet.

“Hunter, Hunter Logan I’mma transfer student.” The teacher nodded and grimaced.

“Oh… you’re one of his students.” Hunter looked up, he didn’t know what teacher this teacher was referring to but he heard the bitterness and was not a fan.

“Yeah, I’m one of his students, he’s a great guy! Taught me a lot!”

“Oh really? What would I use to configure standard and extended IPv4 ACLs?” Hunter blinked his eyes rapidly and smiled nervously. His fingers flashed across the keyboard, which thankfully wasn’t mechanical.

“Uh… well… I would start by… uh…” He glanced at Colin who looked very interested in what he had to say.

“Start by what? Do you know or not, if you don’t you’ll have no idea what’s going on in this class.” The Professor smirked. Hunter’s eyes darted around search results while he tried bullshiting to stall for time.

“Well, wh-” He was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder, he looked up and behind him and saw another Professor. He smiled down through his thick moustache and mouthed, `I got this’.

“Well he would do it in CLI of course, if he knew how to, which he’ll learn in this course Mr. Flemming.” Flemming’s eyes narrowed and he retreated to behind his standing desk.

“Morning Mr. Hanna.” he grumbled. “Ready to start teaching… I already went through the syllabus.” Hanna walked over to the desk across from Flemming’s in the front.

“Yes, but first the Headmasters wants to see one of our students. Mr. Walsh.” Colin swiveled around, hiding laughter from Hunter’s predicament.

“Ahem, yes sir.”

“The Headmasters want to talk with you about something, sounded important so I’d hurry along.” Colin nodded and grabbed his bag, Hunter logged off and slunk out the door after him.

“Thank God that’s over, I don’t know what I’d do if that guy didn’t show up when he did.” Hunter groaned.

“Yeah, Prof. Hanna is a pretty good guy. Despite his age, he actually knows a lot about computers.”

“Yeah, well, whatever, let's just get over to that office.” Colin nodded and they started walking down the halls of the academy towards the Headmaster’s office, using what they remembered about the Henshin Academy layout as a guide. It was laid out like a quarter of a circle, another quarter of the circle comprised the Zordon Academy’s school and grounds. The remaining half was a town where the students and faculty lived during the school year, or year-round if they wanted. All of this was built inside of a giant “doughnut” shaped space station the size of the original Terra Venture’s city dome orbiting around Earth.

It was decided to build the Academies inside the space station as a safeguard of sorts, two schools for future heroes would be a huge target for any villains looking to conquer Earth. Plus S.P.D. wanted an outpost and the Academy Founders needed funding after repairing their Academies every other year because of the actions of various villains attacking Earth. It also provided an easy access to the moon, a safe place for the Rangers to train with their Zords; something the Zordon Academy founder realized was needed after a team of greenhorns nearly leveled an entire burough of New Reefside City.  
They passed classrooms overflowing with students on their way to the office, the duo didn’t know how many Rangers there were to begin with but with the addition of the Rider student body personal space was non-existent. After a few moments of wandering about Hunter came to a stop in a courtyard they were crossing through. “Do you have any idea where the office is?”

“I thought I did, their school plan is different from ours it seems.” Hunter rolled his eyes and took the lead.

“Maybe I should lead the way. I’ll get us there in no time flat.” Colin followed him through the courtyard.

“Go right ahead.”

“Look ahead, look a stern, look the weather in the lee, Blow high! Blow low! And so sailed we. I see a wreck to the windward and a lofty ship to lee, A sailing down all on the coasts of High Barbary!” The sounds of bouzoukis, fiddles, bodhráns and other instruments carried through the air along with the loud voices and chants of the Fir Bolgs in the shipyard. They worked tirelessly rigging and caring for the ships as a tall, staunch, grey-skinned man looked over them. He stalked down the deck of the largest ship in the yard, his black leather boots beating the wood as he went. He ran his fingers through his short black hair and over one of the curved dark blue horns that stuck out from it, he removed a pocket watch from his vest and checked the time.

“He’s late…” He swivelled on his heels and headed to the Captain’s Cabin, he opened the door and closed it behind him. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him, it was a fifth rate Sluagh but still…” He sat at his desk and looked over the map splayed out on it, it was an old yellowed map of the Earth with the entrances to The Otherworld marked on it. This was where you could find Quartermaster Lugh more often than not, pouring over the map with figures setup planning out how to lead the conquest of Earth. This time though, he was just idly moving the figures around, his mind elsewhere. There was a knock at the door followed by a slam as the door opened swiftly, in came a walking black cloak with long brown horns sticking through the back of it.

“Hello Lord Lugh.” it spoke.

“Ahoy Eochaid, how many times have I told you not to slam my doors.” Lugh asked exasperated, he leaned back in his chair and kicked his boots on the corner of the table.

“Too many times to count, I have news about our attack on the Zordon Academy.” The cloak removed its hood revealing another grey man with pointed ears and long black hair pulled back into a braided ponytail. Lugh locked eyes with Eochaid’s and folded his hands.

“And?”

“Buama Sluagh failed, he was sadly defeated by one of the Kamen Rider students.” Lugh removed a pistol from one of his holsters and started idly polishing it. His voice carried disappointment with a hint of anger.

“How. They weren’t supposed to receive their Drivers till later in the day. I know time passes differently here than there but I calculated everything correctly accounting for it, half of those brats should be either joining the crew or hanging in the gallows by now.” Eochaid watched him as Lugh rubbed down his pistol, pulling back his cloak so he could access his own.

“Yes, and if it weren’t for the one getting his out early your magnificent plan would’ve gone off without a hitch.” Lugh laughed.

“Save the flattery for the Captain, who I’m assuming doesn’t know about this little failure yet?” Lugh grabbed a flask of black powder and poured some into his pistol followed by a little black iron disk. Eochaid continued watching as he responded.

“No, I wasn’t planning to see him until after I had another Sluagh sent, a stronger one.” He nodded his head towards shelving on the right side of the cabin, there were glass bottles with little monster figures trapped inside sitting on them. Lugh finished working with his pistol but didn’t put it down or in its holster, he kept it pointing upwards as he eyed Eochaid.

“No. I am not letting you use one of my third or higher rate monsters to make up for your mistake.”

“Why not?” Eochaid walked over to the shelves, taking his eyes off Lugh for a split second, right as he reached for one of the monster bottles he heard a click behind him, the click of a pistol’s safety lock.  
“Because they’re mine, I’ll give you a sixth-rate Sluagh but no higher. Not now, not until we can figure out what we’re dealing with on the other side. Now put the bottle back and walk away.” Eochaid growled and placed the bottle back before turning away and returning to the center of the room, only then did Lugh lower his pistol and replace the safety lock.

“I suppose that will have to do.” Lugh nodded and followed him out of the cabin, as he stood in the door frame he watched Eochaid put his cloak back on.

“Yes, it will. Now hurry along and tell the Captain about your failure while I try to fix it.” Eochaid bowed his head, fury burning in his eyes before he stomped off the ship. Lugh watched him till he exited the shipyard and disappeared inside the castle. He turned back to his cabin and crossed to the shelves on the left side filled with more monster bottles, this time rated from fourth to sixth. “Now… what Sluagh to use this time…”

After some more wandering and arguing over directions Colin and Hunter arrived at the Headmaster’s Office. “See, I told you I knew where the office was!” Hunter knocked on the door, gloating. Colin crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, after looping around the same courtyards and halls five times over.”

“I got us here didn’t I?” The door behind Hunter swung open and the same gentleman from earlier this morning stood in the doorway, Deputy Breas. He sneered at them with his brown eyes as he invited them.

“About time you two trouble makers showed up, your Headmistress has been waiting.”

Colin bowed his head in apology as he followed Hunter inside the office. “Sorry Mr. Breas, we tried using the Henshin Academy’s layout as a guide but it’s evident that yours is different.” Breas closed the door behind them and advanced on them, shoving them up the steps to the main floor. The Headmaster’s office was split into two levels, the bottom floor had a large ornate desk and a seating area for more casual conversations and the upper level which had a large floor to ceiling observatory window to gaze out into the stars as well as a small library of books and more seating. Breas shoved his way past Hunter and climbed the steps to the upper deck.

“Headmistress Sláine! Your students are here, finally.” As he disappeared out of view on the upper deck and Sláine walked into view. She had removed her cloak from address in the cafeteria, leaving her in a black skirt and orange blouse.

“Morning Walsh, Logan, how are you two?” She smiled. The boys bowed.

“We’re doing perfectly fine Ms. Sláine.” “Oh we’re great, wonderful.”

Sláine nodded and invited the two upstairs. “That’s great, come on up here. Mr. Reily and I want to talk to you.” As they climbed one of the staircases to the observation deck Sláine continued, “I heard you boys had some trouble with getting the speakers set up this morning.” Colin nodded.

“Yes ma’am, we didn’t have the speakers for Mr. Reily’s setup and it didn’t seem like more were coming so we went to fetch them ourselves.” When they reached the top floor, they saw Daghda Reily sitting on a couch near the window. He took a sip from his glass and nodded a greeting.

“Come on over boys, take a seat, this shouldn’t take too long.” Sláine passed in front of them and took a seat on the other end of Daghda’s couch, Colin and Hunter sat across from them in a pair of chairs. “So tell us what happened in the theater this morning, Breas said you were going on about monsters and bombs.”

Sláine nodded, “Yeah and it goes without saying, we have some concerns.” Hunter nodded and smiled.

“Yes! Someone who has some sense! When we entered the Theater looking for the speakers we heard voices shouting about bombing the Rangers during their team formation ceremony or whatever.” Hunter sat back in his chair, slipping into tavern storyteller mode. “So me and Colin here came up with a little plan, we dropped the Main on the monster’s head while we fought off these clay men, you should’ve seen us we were kicking crockery left and right.” Colin rested his chin on his palm and arm on the chair and muttered.

“I came up with the main idea.” Hunter waved it away.

“Details, details, point is we kicked some monster butt!”

“Till they backed us against each other and surrounded us. Then the Sluagh finally crawled out from under the Main.” Hunter leaned forward and got jittery.

“Oh yeah tell ‘em what happened next, tell ‘em! Tell ‘em!” Colin sighed and reached into his jacket.

“Then, right as the Sluagh was about to blow the both of us up; I used this.” Colin removed the Dullahan Driver and it cackled. Daghda coughed mid-sip when he saw the device, as he wiped off his chin he looked over at Sláine.

“You gave him his Henshin early?” Sláine smirked back at him.

“Well if that ain’t the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Fair, so you took care of the… what did you call it?” Daghda leaned in on his knees.

“A Sluagh sir, they’re a monster from Celtic myth. Thought to represent the restless Souls of the Dead.” Daghda nodded and took a long sip from his glass while Sláine continued.  
“Did you take care of it?” Colin nodded and removed the mic pack from his Driver, its eyes were a smoldering orange black.

“It’s soul is trapped in here.” Sláine reached behind the couch where she had her cloak, she rummaged around in it till she found an empty glass bottle about the size of the average soda bottle. Sláine got on her feet and crossed to Colin.

“Give me your mic pack.” Colin placed it in her outstretched hand and watched as she popped the cork on the bottle and opened the mic pack’s jaw. She put the bottle in it as if it were drinking and tipped it, dark black liquid and smoke flowed from the skull and into the bottle. As it filled the eye sockets darkened and stopped smoldering while the liquid and smoke solidified into a miniature figure of Buama Sluagh. Sláine gave the mic pack back to Colin and popped the cork back in the bottle. “I’ll seal this boy later, as for now, you two need to keep on your toes because where this came from, there’s more.”

Hunter snapped out of the awe he was stuck in while Sláine was bottling the Sluagh. “That was cool… you mean there’s more of those? I get to see more of that?” He looked over at Colin who put his Driver back inside his jacket. “I get to see more of him fighting?” Daghda nodded while Sláine sat back down.

“Of course Mr. eh, what was your name?”

“Hunter, Hunter Logan.”

“Yes Mr. Logan you will, and hopefully you’ll be able to join in next time.” He replied, looking to Sláine who shook her head. Neither Hunter or Colin saw this as the former was too busy celebrating.

“You hear that man?! I get to fight monsters! Awwww yeaaaaaah!” Colin smiled.

“Calm down, calm down,” Colin turned his attention back to the Headmasters, “So is this a new thing? Fighting monsters and all, instead of training dummies?” Sláine wasn’t sure what to say for a second but glanced at Daghda who took a sip of his drink and looked out the window to the stars.

“Uh, yes, the Zordon Academy has been doing this sort of thing for a long time now. To mimic what they might experience out in the world, it’s a fake organization and since we’re combining Academies we decided to put you in the pool as well. Well, all the senior Riders, not just you.” Colin nodded.

“Alright, so are we good to go?” Sláine nodded and stood up with Daghda.

“Yes, you’re good, I’ll see you again in 4th period when we hand out your Belts.”

“It was nice meeting you two, have a good day and I hope the rest of your day is less, explosive.” Daghda joked, they shook hands and the boys left the office. The Headmasters watched them leave from the observation deck, Sláine leaned on the railing while Daghda stood and downed the rest of glass.

“So who’s gonna tell them?” she asked.

“No one, they’ll find out on their own.”

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 2 of Kamen Rider Dullahan! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


	3. Mission Control

Lunchtime, the 2nd most looked forward to time of day for students right behind the end of the day. The cafeteria and the courtyard near it were where students gathered to talk about the classes and how they sucked or if they actually enjoyed them for once and made plans for after school. At least that’s what Colin thought they did, he usually spends his lunch period in the Theater’s tech room away from other people. They’re often illogical, unpredictable, and emotional none of which Colin was good at dealing with. He much preferred the logical, predictable and nonemotional world of computer code which he worked with while munching on his lunch.

Yet today he was caught in a bit of a bind, he couldn’t eat in the Henshin Academy’s Theater Tech Room because it was closed down and he wasn’t going to assume he could do the same in the Zordon Academy Theater. So he picked a corner in the courtyard outside and curled up, resting his laptop on his legs and his bag to his side. After his meeting with the Academy Heads, Colin and Hunter split up as he went to his correct classes and his lunch period was after Colin’s so he was all alone. Just the way he liked it.

He plugged in his earbuds and pulled up a messenger app he created a few years back in college before he came to Henshin. He brought up a pm with ‘Jill Skellington’ and shot off a message “Hey, how’s it going?” He took a bite of his sandwich and waited for a response. A triplet of dots bounced in the corner as Jill typed back.

Jill Skelington: “Things are alright, me and the others are meeting with our mission control person.”

Colin: “Sounds fun I’ll be meeting mine next period, how’re your classes so far?”

Jill Skelington: “Well the three I was able to go to were fine, Gym was annoying and exhausting, Comp 3 is probably just going to be a bunch of papers and algebra is there but the teacher seems weird.”

Colin: “What level algebra?”

Jill Skelington: “College.”

Colin: “That’s not that bad. :P”

Jill Skelington: “-_- for you.”

Colin: “It’s just simple logic, it’ll be fine. ;)”

Jill Skelington: “You’re helping me.”

Colin: “Oh I’m sure I will be.”

Jill Skelington: “-_- I’ve got to go.”

Colin: “Can we meet after school?”

Jill Skelington: “Of course, come by the apartment whenever.” The green dot turned red and Jill left the conversation. She and Colin had been dating for a few years now, they met each other in High School and bonded over a shared interest of classic movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice as well as working the Sound Crew for the theater. They were a perfect pair, two introverts, one who couldn’t care less about the world around him till it affected him or a dear friend and the other who felt for everyone and often overlooked herself because of it. There was a ding and a speech bubble from ‘Big Buck’ popped on screen.

Big Buck: “Hey dude how’s lunch going”

Colin: “It’s fine? It’s lunch, nothing happens during lunch.”

Big Buck: “Just asking this class is boring af.”

Colin: “What is it?”  
Big Buck: “Chem. We’re just talking about the syllabus, I’ve heard this same speech three times already. Y they do dis? Y we gotta listen to the same thing like 6 different times from 6 different people.”

Colin: “Because school boards, teacher unions, laws, something, I don’t know, I just tune it all out.”

Big Buck :“U got a laptop u can pretend to take notes on while actually watching porn or playing a game.”

Colin: “Porn? Seriously?”

Big Buck: “Oh right, ur one of them weirdo coder people. Bet u get off to Python.”

Colin: “(◔_◔) Grow up.”

Big Buck: “I’ll get to it, so when r u meeting the theatre people?”

Colin: “Next period.”

Big Buck: “Cool cool, is she going to be there?”

Colin: “She?”

Big Buck: “U know. The new girl who ran the light board for Love and Info?”

Colin: “Oh, I dunno.”

Big Buck: “Do u know anything about what goes on in the theater?”

Colin: “Sound.”

Big Buck: “Other than sound. Do u even know the other crew heads.”

Colin: “Of the Ranger Theater? Of course not.”

Big Buck: “Our theater, dumbass.”

Colin: “Oh. I mean, I know Séamus.”

Big Buck: “That’s cuz u have 2 keep yelling at him 2 not break the speakers or 2 cut bigger holes for them. Anyone else?”

Colin: “Uh… Kyle, isn’t he the light head?”

Big Buck: “Yes.”

Colin: “See, I know people.”

Big Buck: “In our Freshman year.”

Colin: “Oh.”

Big Buck: “smh boi, aren’t u supposed 2 know this stuff?”

Colin: “I mean. Yes.”

Big Buck: “Well, hopefully, she’s there.”

Colin: “She? She who?”

Big Buck: “The girl we were just talking about.”

Colin: “Oh, maybe. Why?”

Colin: “U know why.”

Colin: “No I don’t actually.”

Big Buck: “She got it goin on son! She’s pretty and smart!”

Colin: “Probably too smart for you.”

Big Buck: “I’ll show u, I’m gonna make her mine! When I worked with her during Love and Info it was some kind of thunderbolt struck me.”

Colin: “Yeah, ok, sure. The last girlfriend you had was junior year of High School.”

Big Buck: “We had some issues to sort out, it was fine.”

Colin: “She dumped you during prom.”

Big Buck: “U weren’t there, u know nothing! NOZINK!”

Colin: “Yes I was, I was in the corner drinking punch that I’m not totally convinced wasn’t spiked by the quarterback.”

Big Buck: “Yeah, I thought I tasted some vodka in with that kool-aid. So did u hear about that monster attack earlier?”

Colin: “There was another?”

Big Buck: “Yeah, some Ranger punks took care of it but the monster destroyed a courtyard before it went down.”

Colin: “Hmph, I thought the idea was the more Rangers there are, the less collateral there’d be with them all focused on the monster.”

Big Buck: “Yeah, thought that too… Oh shit, teach is on2 me, c u later.”

Colin: “See ya.” Big Buck’s light turned red

Colin finished eating his lunch and packed up his laptop and started heading to the Theater. His class didn’t start for another 15 minutes but being in the theater industry for years instilled him with the “being early is on time and being on time is late” mindset. Which is true for the actors, having to put on makeup, change into costumes, get mics on and test them, warm up and all that jazz but the tech side arguably adheres to it more. Lighting had to start the lighting plot and run through the cues, making sure spots are spotted, angles are angled and cues are ready to be cued on time. Sound has to test the mics, make sure they have enough that work correctly to give to the leads and the shoddy ones for the extras, effects are loaded and ready for cues, and then micing up the actors once they’ve finished with makeup.

Colin entered the theatre through the same doors he and Hunter used that morning and heard talking coming from the stage, he walked backstage and saw a cluster of students gathered around a table eating. He watched them as he crossed to the shop entrance, sometimes he wished he had a social circle like that, a group of friends eating around a table and having fun. Then he remembered that people were idiots and moved on, he liked having his small circle; it worked for him and he didn’t see any reason to expand its diameter.

He entered the shop and called out. “Hello. Is the shop director in?” He looked around and saw a middle-aged stocky man with long grey hair and a short salt and pepper beard standing behind a triangular platform. It looked like it was cobbled together with a bunch of 2x4 scraps, the guy was holding a pretty hefty pneumatic nail gun under the platform ready to nail it together… but it was pointed at him. He raised his head and looked at Colin with a smile.

“Hi, yeah that’s me, I’m Shaun.” Colin nodded and waved.

“Colin. Uh, um…” Colin pointed at the nail gun raised a brow, he wasn’t much of a set crewman but he did know stupid when he saw it.

“Oh. Yeah, you’re not supposed to do it like this.”

“I know.” Shaun nodded.

“Cool.” There was a thunk and woosh of air as he fired the gun, he backed away and let the platform stand on its own. “Aww shit that worked!” He pumped his arm and set the nail gun down before walking over to Colin. He stretched his hand out, Colin gingerly took it before returning it to his pocket. “So you must be one of the boys from the Henshin Theatre?”  
“Yeah, Colin Walsh, Sound Crewhead.”

“Nice, nice, glad to meet you. I don’t know if he’s here yet or not but our Sound Crewhead, Parker Holzman will probably be in the tech room. We’ll talk later when your Shop director gets here.” Colin gave a small wave and started leaving. He crossed the stage again, clinging to the back out of the lights and attention and up the ramp to what he assumed was the tech room. He knocked on the door and jiggled the handle, it turned down and the door swung open to reveal a small room about 14’ by 14’. Along the far wall were stacks of speakers and amps, along one side were metal cabinets that weren’t quite closed all the way, a few had some cables hanging out. The opposite wall was lined with racks of Ellipsoidal and Fresnel lights and filing cabinets, stepping inside the last wall had more speakers and cabinets and a small widescreen tv set up.

Sitting at a table cobbled together with 2x4s and a sheet of plywood was a man with a mess of black curly hair barely hidden beneath a black fedora, his face was framed by a patchy beard and sported a white hoodie under a black jacket. He had his boots up on the table and a laptop in his lap. He had music playing from a speaker, something Japanese, maybe an anime opening, Colin closed the door behind him and set his bag on the table. The man looked up from his laptop and smiled at him. “Hi, you’re Colin Walsh right?”

Colin nodded. “You’re Parker?”

“The one and only, how ya doing? Come on take a seat.” Parker set his laptop on the table and sat up. Colin looked around for a chair but didn’t see anymore. “Oh, right, just sit on one of the speakers, most of them haven’t been used in years. Besides what damage could you do?” He nodded and pulled out a speaker and sat down. “So how are you, my friend?”

“We’re not friends.” Parker smiled.

“Not with that attitude. How’s your first day been?” Colin shrugged and rolled his eyes.

“It’s been fine, the usual first day back to school.”

“What’re you taking?”

“Uh, Physics, Coding, Theatre classes.”

“Coding? You like coding?”

“Yes? It’s frustrating when it doesn’t work right but Cyber Security pays well.”

“What’s that?”

“Like, security for computers, keeping hackers from getting info off your computers or whatever.”

“Ah, ok.” There was a pause as Parker waited for Colin to ask him the same questions. Instead, Colin pulled his phone out and started scrolling through his social feed. “You’re not a very talkative guy are you?” Without looking up Colin simply grunted in affirmation. “Alriiight… Well, my colleague should be here at any moment and we can do the mission control intro.”

“Cool.”

Parker leaned in on the table and continued trying to pry open a conversation. “So how long have you been doing sound?”

“8 Years.”

“8 Years, wow. Professionally or just school?”

“Both.”

“I see, we’ll I’ve been doing it for about… let’s see…” Before he could finish the thought, the Tech room door swung open and a group of 3 entered. In the lead was a stout gentleman in a green hoodie, jeans and KC Royals baseball cap, he had some tools and keys dangling from his belt and his tired half-smile was surrounded by a neatly trimmed beard. He was followed by a short dark skinned guy in a plain blue shirt and black vest sipping on a Starbucks cup and looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. Bringing up the rear was a taller girl with long blonde hair, some of which was tied in a ponytail and a purple vest covering a violet shirt.

“Alright, everyone here? I’m Skip Gordon, the tech director for the Zordon Academy and your mission control guy.” He held out his hand for Colin to shake, Colin took it and put away his phone. “You’ve met Parker it seems, this is Gavin DeSanta he’s out Light Head, and of course you know your Light Head.” Skip nodded and motioned towards the other two. Gavin adjusted his glasses and dismissed Colin with his hard and cold blue eyes while the girl waved and smiled, her green eyes were soft and kind.

“Hi Colin, how’s it been?” Colin’s eyes went wide and he racked his brain for the girl’s name. He stuttered out an answer while he searched.

“It’s been fine. How’ve you been Carr… Kay… Kait…”

“Caitlín.” She smiled.

“Right, sorry Caitlín.” Colin tipped his head in apology and they watched Skip cross the room to a door in the back corner, he slid a card across a pad and there was a whish of air and clunk as the deadbolt unlocked. He held the door open and motioned for everyone to enter. Parker led the way followed by Caitlín and Colin tried after her but Gavin forcibly shoved his way in between them, he wasn’t sure but Colin swore he saw him sneering. The group climbed a set of concrete stairs up to a room with dim lighting and faint outlines of chairs and desks, Skip raised the lights and revealed desks with monitors, walls with weapon racks, a padded area in one corner, and a triplet of motorcycles in the corner.

“Welcome to your home base, it’s from here you’ll report to me, train, and receive any new form upgrades or weapons. No one is allowed in here except you four and the rest of Parker and Gavin’s teams, other crew heads, me and members of the administration. Am I clear?” The four nodded. “No bringin girlfriends or boyfriends to impress ‘em ok?”

“Please, as if anyone here could get a date.” Gavin scoffed and sipped his coffee. Parker groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Gavin… Yeah, we understand Skip.” Skip smiled and clapped his hands together.

“Alright, so now that I’ve shown you the facilities, how about we break ‘em in?” Skip walked over to a monitor and typed away on the keyboard and then a computerized voice spoke.

“Unmorphed Training Exercise 01: Initiating.” Over in the padded section of the room, holographic training dummies and fake scenery appeared and the walls changed appearance to replicate a workshop.

“Alright, each of you is going to go through this exercise. First Parker, then Gavin, Caitlín, and Colin. This is just a simple, basic test to see how well you know how to fight and this will also be without Morphing. Or Henshining in your case.” Skip explained motioning towards Colin and Caitlín.

“Alright, this should be easy.” Parker walked into the training area and waited for the word.

“This also for a grade, ACTION!” Skip shouted and the exercise began. A Holo-mook charged at Parker from the left and another from the front, he ducked under their swings and swept their legs out from under them with a move straight of a breakdance routine. As they hit the ground he used his momentum to swing back to his feet and snatch a metal rod leaning against the wall and whipped it around him to jab a mook in the stomach coming from behind, he and the rod continued to spin around the battlefield in a deadly dance as he knocked down his opponents. When the last mook hit the ground, he struck the ground with the rod, removed his fedora and bowed. The group clapped and Gavin stepped up.

“Show off.” He muttered, passing Parker. Parker stood beside Colin as they watched Gavin prepare to fight. Parker started fanning himself with his hat as he tried once again to open a conversation with Colin.

“So how was that? What’d you think?” He asked between breaths. Colin shrugged and stroked his chin watching Gavin bob and weave through the mook’s punches and kicks, striking rarely but when he did it was quick, accurate and put the mook down instantly.

“Flashy.”

“Yeah, I used to do breakdancing in middle and high school. I really only do it to stay in shape nowadays, but it does help keep fighting interesting.”

“Does it.” Parker replaced his hat and pulled his phone out, Gavin finished his exercise and Caitlín stepped in. When Skip called out, she immediately retreated forcing the mooks to come to her and as she fended them off Parker brought his phone up to Colin’s view.

“Yeah, watch this. This is the same training exercise, not the one we’re doing right now a different one, but I did it once “normally” and a second time with my breakdance techniques.” He started playing the video and Colin glanced at it a few times but kept his eyes mainly focused on Caitlín’s fight.

“You can stop trying to impress the Rider Parker, he’s clearly not interested.” They heard from behind, Colin and Parker looked over their shoulders and saw Gavin behind them sipping on his coffee. “Any why should he? He’s one of them special Kamen Riders, they don’t care about us measly Power Rangers.”

Colin rolled his eyes and turned back to the fight, Parker, however, leaned on the table. “You know we’re gonna be stuck together for the whole school year right? We’re gonna have to work together and stuff?”

“Work together? With a Kamen Rider? Puh-lease, they can’t even work together within their own ranks. Name one Rider group that didn’t have any infighting.” Parker hung his head.

“You know I can’t answer that, I don’t know Rider history!” Gavin smiled smugly as if he won the non-argument and sipped on his coffee. Caitlín finished the last mook and exited the training area, as she passed Colin she whispered in his ear.

“Good luck!” Colin entered the training area and waited for the signal when Skip shouted he spun around and scanned for the first attack. A mook was charging at him from behind with an impact driver in its hand, Colin raised his hands and kicked his leg out locking the mook’s leg up and causing it to fall forward. As it fell the impact fell out of his hand and clattered against the floor, there was a shout from his right and Colin rolled to the left barely missing another mook’s punch. He wrapped his hand around the dropped impact driver and chucked it at the mook’s face, not accurate or powerful, but it was enough to open up a chance to get on his feet.

Colin scanned the workshop and saw a spool of rope against one wall, he grabbed a metal pole like Parker used and swung it around to keep the mooks at bay as he crossed to the rope. The pole felt unwieldy and threatened to slip out of his hand at any moment because of the oil coating. _“How the hell is he able to use this thing?!”_ He reached the spool and grabbed the end of the rope, he threw the pole away knocking over a pair of mooks and yanked out a good length of rope, about 4 feet. A mook charged at him, a sword raised high in the air, Colin slid aside at the last moment making the sword mook cut the rope. _“Nice.”_

Colin pulled the rope back and flicked it, it didn’t crack or feel like his Dullahan whip but it would do. When the sword mook turned to face him, Colin flicked the rope at it and the rope lashed itself around the mook’s wrist. Colin yanked it back sending the sword skittering across the floor till it stopped at his feet, he snatched it up and swung at a mook behind him attempting to get the drop on him. The now swordless mook charged at him with a wrench he grabbed off the counter roaring, Colin dodged the wild swings and waited for an opening. _“Left swing, right swing, uppercut, left, right, up, left, right, up, left, right, up, NOW.”_ Colin jabbed the sword forward and lodged it in the mook’s ribcage as it finished its uppercut. It stumbled back and dropped the wrench before dissolving into pixels followed by the workshop.

Outside Skip, Parker and Caitlín were clapping, Gavin was expectedly sipping his coffee and dismissing him. “Good job Colin! That was a spectacular display!” Colin bowed and stepped out of the training area. He joined the others at a table while Skip looked over his notes. “Alright you all were great out there, but that was easy. Just a warm-up… which means we have lots of room to improve.” Gavin choked and spit out his coffee.

“What? Excuse me? I thought you said we did great?” Skip nodded and handed out his notes.

“You were, but there is always room to improve and more to learn. And this year, you’ll be learning from more than just me and the teachers, but each other as well.” Gavin rolled his eyes and turned away reading Skip’s notes.

“Whatever.” Skip sighed and started toward the stairs.

“Well I’ve got a production meeting to get to so I’ll leave you here, the training sim is still up so if you want to run through some more exercises go ahead. Oh and Colin, Caitlín?” The two Riders looked at him.

“You’ve been given permission to use your bikes, just swipe your card keys on the freight elevator to bring you down to the garage exit. You’ll find them in your lockers over there in the corner, use them to enter this place and access most of the tech in here.” And with that Skip left the room and the four students alone. Gavin started to the lockers to investigate it while the others just sat there in awkward silence. After a few moments, Parker pulled a box out of his backpack and opened it up.

“Anyone here play Yu-Gi-Oh? I’ve got some decks we can play with and the rest of my day are all theatre classes so I’m not going anywhere.” Gavin shook his head and scoffed.

“No thanks, I don’t have time for your weird children’s anime card game. I’ve got places to be and important stuff to do.” As he exited the room via the staircase Parker shouted after him.

“SAYS THE THEATRE NERD!” He shook his head. “Dick. I apologise for him, he’s actually a pretty cool dude once you get past all the… ego and dismissiveness.”

Caitlín waved it away and leaned in on the table. “Oh it’s fine, he’s probably not happy about this whole school sharing thing. I expected there to be some pushback.” She reached over and grabbed a deck from Parker’s box. “So how do you play this game?” Parker’s eyes lit up and he smiled and reached back into his bag.

“Oh it’s very easy, what about you Colin? Are you gonna play?” Colin looked up from his notes.

“What?”

“You want to play Yu-Gi-Oh with us? Hang out? Get to know each other?”

“Oh. No, I’ve got to go.” Colin walked over to his locker and pulled a card key from a pocket on the outside, it was designed after the Rider Cards used by the legendary Kamen Rider Decade. One side had his Dullahan form and the other had his picture and name under it, he walked over to the motorcycles and swiped his card across the access pad and as he felt the elevator move under him he straddled his Dullacycle. He pulled on his gloves, put on his helmet and turned it on, it roared to life under him, when the elevator reached the bottom and the garage door opened he kicked the kickstand up and roared out.

* * *

Thank you for reading Episode 3 of Kamen Rider Dullahan! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! https://discord.gg/jFgQJE9


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